About the work

Alexandre da Cunha has created Say it to me, 2025, a special limited edition etching, especially for Whitechapel Gallery to accompany the exhibition Lygia Clark: The I and the You, 2 Oct 2024 – 12 Jan 2025.

Alexandre da Cunha’s edition for Whitechapel Gallery takes as its starting point, a painting created by the artist as part of his Exile series. Comprising gouache on paper works all at A4 scale, the series is an exploration of flux and movement between spaces, both physiologically and physically. Like the gouache works, the image in da Cunha’s etching is the same scale, outlined by an embossed plate mark. Intimate, immediate, and portable, these notebook scaled works, made between London and São Paulo, coincided with the period that the artist was traveling between homes. These sensitive and often whimsical paintings encourage a direct relationship with the viewer, as if they were personal messages or letters. 

About the artist

Alexandre da Cunha (b.1969) is a Brazilian-born artist who lives and works in São Paulo and London. He has referred to his practice as ‘pointing’ as opposed to ‘making’. By ‘pointing’ at existing objects in plain sight, da Cunha highlights new and unexpected meanings within the objects he chooses. This approach allows him to disentangle preconceptions and instinctive responses inherent to particular objects, restoring them with alternative modes of viewing and understanding. Given their renewed possibility, da Cunha’s sculptures inspire lush potential, illuminating everyday encounters with these ordinary materials. For instance, household cleaning objects suddenly conjure spiritual significance, while seemingly mundane industrial ready-mades echo art historical precedents.

Selected exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions include: Quebrada, auroras, São Paulo, Brazil (2023); Duplex, Brighton CCA, Brighton, England (2021); Arena, Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples, Italy (2020); Duologue with Phillip King, Royal Society of Sculptors, London, England (2018); Boom, Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil (2017); Free Fall, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England (2016); the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago IL (2015); Dublê, Centro Cultural São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2011), and Laissez-Faire, Camden Arts Centre, London, England (2009). Da Cunha’s work is included in major private and institutional collections including the Tate, England; ICA Boston, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, USA; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; and Inhotim, Brazil.

Major public and outdoor sculptures by da Cunha are on permanent view at Battersea Power Station Underground Station in London, the Monsoon Building in London, the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis USA, Pierce Boston Tower in Boston USA and the Rochaverá Tower in São Paulo, Brazil.